It is desirable on the part of most golfers today to carry a golf ball retriever in their golf bags. The retriever should be lightweight, telescopically expandable to a substantial length, say, eighteen feet, and capable of gripping a golf ball with a light touch from either side thereof.
Numerous varieties of golf ball retrievers have been known heretofore. One such known golf ball retriever is disclosed in Jenings U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,413, including a pair of spaced apart wire loops extending from the open end of a ferrule, with a generally U-shaped wire gate pivotally mounted intermediate the loops, and having its ends pivotally mounted in openings formed in oppositely disposed outside walls of the ferrule.
Another known golf ball retriever is shown as "prior art" in the applicants' FIG. 6. This arrangement includes a square cross-sectional metal tubular member into which a metal substantially U-shaped strap has its ends inserted and secured by two spaced pins extended between oppositely disposed walls adjacent the end thereof. A T-shaped wire gate is pivotally mounted at the end of its stem in the center of the tubular member on a third pin extended between the oppositely disposed walls, with the two spaced pins serving as stops for the wire gate.